After spending the previous 18 years in the urban atmosphere of St. Louis, Rob Thurman is embracing his return to the less hectic, serene life of living on his family’s LaRue County farm off Brashear’s Road.

Hit by a car, suffering from a broken leg and abandoned by his owners, the outlook for 2-year-old pug Tristan was bleak. Just a few short weeks later, however, Tristan has been renamed Charlie and is in a loving household, free of any broken bones or feelings of helplessness.

This is the second in a three-part series highlighting LaRue County’s three county extension agents. The county extension program is an educational program implemented by land-grant universities to help people find and use research-based knowledge; the program turns 100 years old in 2012.